


A horsewoman of Four

by TheHeckAmI



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Bonding, I'm doing my best so sorry, Life Saving, Lots of dead people, not a lot makes sence, oc is kind spoopy skary skeleton, possibly OOC characters... oops, powered characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-05-31 17:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15124451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHeckAmI/pseuds/TheHeckAmI
Summary: What do the Bats think when a girl with pitch black eyes wielding a massive scythe and always hidden in a black cloack starts saving their lives? naturally the first instinct a Bat has is to find out as much about this person as possible to make sure they're not a threat, but what are the supposed to do when literally nothing comes up?Wait for her to slip up?





	1. "take my hand"

Red Hood was growing a little worried at his current situation, and it took a lot to make him worried about a fight. But, then again, hanging off of a bridge by one hand, completely out of ammunition, and dealing with a probably broken ankle can make just about anyone worried. He grit his teeth and tried to gauge if he would survive the fall to the rapid water below as he listened to footsteps approach.

“Look, we’ve had that ass on his toes for the last three days.” the dark voice made Red Hood try and calculate faster. If he dropped while the waves were starting to build there should be enough water to cushion him right? “If we’re almost outta ammo then he certainly is.”

“I don’t know Max, those freaks from Gotham always have another trick up their sleeve.”

“Relax, it’s just him.” Red Hood was about to drop when the sound of steel cutting through flesh and then the scrape of gravel sent flying before a terrified scream echoed through the gorge.

“W-Who the hell-” the voice was cut off with a wet gurgle and a faint thud.

Red Hood briefly debated dropping right then and there as silence stretched on for several moments. He almost lost his grip out of shock when a literal SKELETON HAND reached over the side of the bridge towards him, the deep hood framing the thankfully human face so that he couldn't see any of their other features. The pitch black eyes behind the also black masquerade mask were highly unsettling though.

“Take my hand.”


	2. we know nothing

Nightwing was normally quite confident in his ability to get out of harry situations. Staring down the face of twenty guns and already injured and worn out from a previous fight was not helping him however.

“Look, I’m sure we can all leave tonight without any unnecessary violence, right?” Nightwing tried in a chipper tone.

The closest goon moved just a little closer “of course, unluckily for you this is going to be kinda necessary.” Nightwing prepared to dive out of the way as the lights went out.

Everything turned to chaos the second darkness fell. There were small bursts of light granted by the gunfire as Nightwing dove for cover and short screams of pain echoed through the building. When the lights came back up Nightwing caught the glimpse of a black cloak disappearing through a broken window and was left with a mass of softly moaning thugs in puddles of their own blood.

****

Batman stared at the broken tip of the curved weapon. It had broken off of the scythe his cloaked helper had used when diving between Batman and the serial killer he had chased into Metropolis. She had deflected the shots aimed at Batman and then nailed his attacker in the balls before glancing back at him with pitch black eyes and disappearing into the city.

Apparently Jason had run into the person before when he was in a tight spot and they had disappeared just as quickly after helping him as well. Scouring the security camera footage of the area he had run into was less than helpful at the moment as not a single one had caught anything more than the black cloak or scythe she used. Batman took the clearest of these images anyways and saved them away to pursue later. Right now he had to deal with some other issues.


	3. this boy nearly drown

Red Robin hadn’t expected to ever actually meet the girl that had his dad so worked up. He had been on the tail of a drug lord when things took a sharp turn for the worse and he was kicked off of a cliff into the ocean. Waking up to the sound of another person hacking and coughing next to him had him turning his face slightly and reaching for some kind of weapon. The girl next to him was supporting herself by her forearms as she kneeled in the sand and coughed up mouthfuls of seawater.

“Holy shit,” he croaked a pair of pitch black eyes glanced his way before their owner pushed themself up with a grunt and coughed heavily into their elbow “Wait!” Red Robin shouted in alarm and quickly rolled over only to have his vision swim. He was shot a half sympathetic look before the girl came back over and pushed him firmly back into the sand.

Her voice was cracked and worn when she spoke, trying not to cough on him “There’s a cabin a little further down the shore that you can stay in until Batman comes to get you.”

Red Robin grabbed onto her arm before she could leave “who are you?” he demanded “Batman can’t find anything on you.”

There was a small smile on her face that was quickly replaced by a hand as she covered her cough, after a moment she answered “It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Don’t worry about it.”


	4. first information

Oracle had worked with Red Robin to try and find something, anything, on this girl who had saved him and Bats without even a whisper of anything like her anywhere. It was sheer luck that Bruce had turned on the news when he had and sent her a text. There was the exact same black cloak and scythe in front of an elementary school. The scythe was laying forgotten on the ground and black gloved hands pounded into the face of a would be school shooter. She somehow evaded letting the camera get any shots of her face as she eventually backed off to let the cops grab the dude. None of them even bothered to ask her questions.

Oracle pulled out her phone and dialed her father “hey dad, do you know anything about some girl in a black cloak with a Scythe?”

The concerned and surprised voice of the commissioner came back over her phone “you ran into her?”

“Not personally, no. who is she?”

“No idea, but it’s a national order to not call her in for anything but clarification on a case.”


	5. Everyone's part skeleton

Robin knew about the girl in the cloak by now and just how much the lack of information was setting his father on edge. He had saved all of his brothers at this point and all they knew for sure about her was that she worse a very concealing black cloak, mask, and used a scythe. It annoyed him as well because they had spent the last month trying to figure out why the government had a policy not to interfere with her.

Robin had been determined to get it all over with and hunt her down himself at this point and was amused that she had come to him instead. The only downside was that it was a little hard to interrogate someone while they’re saving your life.

“I was under the impression that you were part skeleton,” Robin called out to her.

“Isn’t everyone?” she called back while blocking the sword strike of one assassin and kicking another in the chest.

“As in with a hand of only bone,” Rodin sneered.

“Only sometimes.”

Robin pulled the USB out of the computer and turned to the girl with a frown “what is that supposed to mean?” he snapped. He didn’t get an answer from the girl as she knocked out on of the assassins and pulled a knife from somewhere within her cloak to block a different assassins knife. Robin threw himself into the fight next to her and unceremoniously got shoved back as she headbutted another attacker. “What do you think you’re doing!?” he snapped.

“Giving you a clear escape,” she snapped back and rammed a boot between the legs of another attacker before grabbing the neck of one making a break towards Robin and slamming him to the ground in a display of force.

“I’m not going to leave until you answer my questions,” Robin snapped and dove back into the fight, this time a little further away from her.

“Or you could just leave without answers,” she offered, dodging a punch but returning one to the one who had attempted it.

“No.”

“Worth a shot,” she sighed. Robin lost track of her for a few moments during the fight but once they had taken down all of the assailants he grabbed her wrist before she could take off and disappear “I want answers,” he hissed.

Her cool black eyes met his as her face fell to an emotionless mask. “I’m sorry but-”

“Why do the cops not bother you?” he snapped, tugging her closer to him.

“Because the government found out that it was pointless to try and stop me so they decided to work with me.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Why do you keep saving us?”

“Because it’s not your time to die yet.” her hand was yanked out of his grip and she backed away to quickly and darted out of an open window before he could catch her again.

“DAMN IT!”


	6. WOW, a promising suspect

The girl had only appeared once in Gotham before and that was to help out Robin when he was gathering Intel and got assaulted by assassins. Since then she had shown up to push Nightwing out of the way of an oncoming car in Hollywood, pulled Red Hood from a river while he was out in the middle on nowhere, pulled Red Hood out of the trunk of a car when he was kidnapped, and shown up while Batman was with the justice league at one point- pulling Green Lantern behind cover before he could get himself shot by a rebel soldier and catching the Flash with a skeletal hand as he was thrown off the edge of a building by the villain. At that point the League got interested as well. Superman reported seeing her in Metropolis briefly during a huge natural disaster pulling nearly dead people out of the rubble, but she had disappeared into the wreckage moments before he could get to her and after that he didn’t see her again.

The strangest occurrence however was when Wonder woman reported running into the girl and getting a coffee handed to her with a bright smile and a ‘have a nice day’.

Two months later and almost no sightings of her in that time, Bruce Wayne was having a charity dinner and invited plenty of wealthy guests. Including a world renowned epidemiologist and her ‘family’. Bruce knew from polite inquiry that the teenager the woman had brought with her wasn’t actually her daughter but that she had been looking out for for a while since she didn’t have anyone else.

The epidemiologists got plenty of looks from the other guests since eyes glowed a soft green behind her tinted glasses. The teen wore the same kind of glasses but when one of the boys asked about it she gave a hesitant smile and said her eyes were hardly anything compared to her the epidemiologists. Dick was of course the one to try and encourage the teenager as the Wayne boys curiously surrounded the girl and insisted that ‘in that case they must be amazing since hers seem so cool’. The glasses were hesitantly removed and cups were almost dropped at the sight of pitch black eyes. By the time Bruce had been bodily dragged over to the girl her glasses were firmly back on her face and she was practically hiding behind her guardian who was try to get her to socialize.

“Excuse me,” Bruce began gently and she gave him a wary look “Ms. Anderson correct? My boys have been telling me how, hm, how did they put it, ‘badass’, Your eyes are?” the epidemiologist snorted in amusement and his her grin behind a hand as a look of intense embarrassment crossed the girls face and she looked away.

“Thank you,” she said softly and Bruce gave her a gentle smile.

“If you don’t mind can I ask why they’re like that? If it was an accident perhaps we can help?” he tried.

The girl looked up at him in surprise as her mouth hung open slightly before she clacked it shut and shook her head “i-it wasn’t an accident,” there was a quick glance at her companion who gave a small nod “I was born like this, sir.”

“No need to call me sir,” Bruce chuckled gently “and I’m sure your eyes are amazing.” here he turned his attention to the epidemiologist “so Anna, how has your work been?”

As the two adults began talking about work and things the girl began to look a little more relaxed. She stayed close to Anna as they talked and seemed content to simply listen. When Bruce returned to his waiting boys he scanned the faces of the three he was aloud to have in attendance and addressed them in a careful tone “she may just be who we were looking for. Try and find out but don’t scare her off.” the group nodded and parted ways.

Dick was able to slide in just before Damian could as the girl went to grab some food and flashed her a wide smile “Me again! Sorry about staring before,” he apologised sincerely “it just kind of took me off guard.”

She waved a hand dismissively with a small, shy, smile “It’s fine, most people are the same.”

“Still doesn’t excuse my staring,” he insisted with a small smile of his own “I know I said this already but I’m Dick Grayson. I don’t think you actually said your name when we met.”

She paused looking a little surprised “I didn’t?” he shook his head and she put a hand to her face for a moment in embarrassment before outstretching it with a hesitant smile “Amanda?” she said it like it was more of a question than a statement.

Dick flashed a cheeky smile as he took her hand “really? You didn’t sound to sure there.”

“I-it’s Amanda,” she promised with a smile of her own.

“So how old are you?” Dick asked curiously as they continued towards the food table.

Amanda paused for a moment before answering “Seventeen, sorry my birthday was recently and I have trouble switching numbers,” her hesitant and shy smile made Dick chuckle.

“It’s fine, not like I don’t accidentally say the wrong age when people put me on the spot either. Where do you go to school?”

She paused again. Seeming unsure as she grabbed a cup of water “I’m home schooled actually. My, uh… my situation makes it a little difficult to go to a normal school.”

Dick tilted his head slightly “what do you mean?”

Amanda took a long sip of her water and didn’t answer for a few minutes before softly saying “I’d rather not elaborate.”

Dick was a little disappointed that it wouldn’t be that easy but smiled and nodded “that’s fine, you don’t have to tell a stranger your life story after all.” she gave him a grateful look and he wondered if people tried to press her about it a lot. He knew Damian would.

“What about you?” Amanda asked “do you go to college or anything?”

The two of them chatted for the next thirty minutes or so, Dick slowly picking up more tidbits of who she was and the kind of things she did. She seemed to have relaxed somewhat around his friendly demeanor and he found a glimmer of pride when he got her to laugh over a stupid pun. Eventually however Tim decided to jump in on the conversation by sliding in and throwing an arm around his older brothers shoulders.

“Hey Dick,” he said around his cup of coffee he had somehow snuck into the event without Bruce catching him “Alfred's been looking for you by the way.”

Dick nodded in thanks and quickly introduced Amanda to Tim before he hurried off to find Alfred. She shifted warily from foot to food “so you like computers right?”

Tim nodded “Yep. so where do you come from by the way?”

“No one place really,” she answered, not looking at him “I,um, moved around a lot when I was younger. Still do actually.”

“Is it because of your mom's job?” he asked and the girl winced ever so slightly.

“No, not really,” she confessed hesitantly “it’s… complicated. Don’t worry about it.” she gave him a wary smile.

“Well where are you now?” Tim questioned.

“Gotham?” she said glancing at Anna “She’s here for some conferences for a while so I guess we’ll be staying.” 

Tim nodded “you should come by sometime then, since you don’t have school you’ll probably need something to keep you busy right?”

She hesitated and watched him warily behind her glasses “maybe.”

Before Tim could try and pry anything else out of her, Damian had approached and stood firmly in front of Amanda “why are your eyes black?”

Amanda looked a little shocked at being asked and Tim had to fight the urge to slap his brother upside the head while in front of a guest and likely suspect. To both of their surprise however, she actually, kind of answered “I was born like this. I honestly have no idea why they’re as black as they are or why they’re all black and I wish I did.”

“Have you not been able to run tests?” Damian asked.

Amanda seemed to start getting defensive “I mean yeah, why wouldn’t I? Apparently everything about them is normal and working perfectly fine other than the fact that they’re black.”

Tim cut in “sorry about him,” he said quickly, pulling Damian away from Amanda “he’s got no tact.” Amanda nodded a little but Damian pressed onwards.

“What do you to most of the time?”

Amanda paused for a moment and they caught the slight head turn that meant she had glanced towards the door “It depends I guess,” she began slowly “I do a lot of traveling, I do plenty of studying to try and keep up with a normal high school education and if I can get away with it, boxing?”

“Boxing?” both boys parroted.

She gave a half smile and looked towards the ground “yeah… it’s, um, kind of a guilty pleasure of mine I guess you could say?” she quickly looked up with a worried look on her face “not the beating people up part, just the power and rhythm part-it’s nice to be able to take all your emotions out on a punching bag!” she sounded like she was concerned they would scorn her for this.

Damian scoffed “do you not get in the ring then? How is boxing useful if you never use it against another person.”

Amanda shook her head “No, I’m fine with getting in the ring, it’s just not my favorite part.”

“Would you be willing to show me your skills then?” Damian asked. This time Tim did smack him.

“You can’t just go asking guests to fight you!” Tim hissed out.

“I-I’d rather not,” Amanda said taking a step away from them with a wary look at Damian “I mean I’m in a dress and this is a formal event.”

“We can find you pants,” Damian stated bluntly and and she looked even more wary now.

Anna suddenly swept up behind the group with a cool look on her face “evening boys, are you having a good time Amanda?” she was shooting the boys suspicious looks. Amanda gave a small forced smile and nodded.

“Y-yeah. I’m good.” Anna looked down at the younger girl with an unconvinced expression so she added on, “Dick was really nice and I think I’ve met all of the Waynes at this point so that’s cool right?” there was a vaguely hopeful smile on her face and Anna nodded after a moment.

“Well you can come find me when you’re done socializing,” she reminded her ward and Amanda nodded.

“In that case I guess I’m done now,” she turned back to the brothers with a wary smile “thank you for talking to me, it was.. Nice?” Amanda then quickly followed Anna away from them and their window for casually interrogating her was at a close.


	7. Chapter 7

The four boys were standing in the bat cave doing their best not to start a fight as Batman presented new information to the group. Several photos of Amanda had been pulled up and displayed. She had been seen all over the world in just about every city at least once, yet she seemed to be mostly focused on America. There was apparently a photo of her sprawled across a plush chair in the white house, fast asleep and glasses askew. There were also various reports of violence against her yet none of these ever included anything about her eyes, or they had and it had been removed from the reports.

“She was kidnapped and put in a burning building?” Nightwing questioned in amazed horror.

Robin pointed to a separate report “looks like she was sent to the hospital by a training partner who confessed to beating her intentionally.”

“Looks like she doesn’t have a great track record with schools either,” Red Hood grunted.

Nightwing frowned in concern “she did mention she was home schooled. Gotham is a lot rougher than some of the other cities around, do you think she’ll be alright?”

“If she is who we think she is she’ll be fine,” Red Robin sighed “then again, I doubt she carries that scythe with her everywhere.”

Nightwings frown deepened “If we confront her about it do you think she’ll confess?”

“And how do you suggest we do that, it’s not like we can say she saved us personally and demand answers.” Damian shot back.

Red Hood paused “she seems to show up when our lives are on the line right?” the group nodded “why not put someone’s life on the line then. She’s said a few times over that she’s trying to keep us from dying before our time.”

Batman's normal scowl got a little deeper “I’m not ready to put any of you in the line of fire for this just yet.”

Robin scowled eight back “why not? She’ll be in the city and she’ll hardly let us die if her past actions are anything to go by.”

“Because there’s a chance she might not,” Batman shot back “and I don’t want to lose any of you because she decided not to show up.” the quiet that fell afterwards was not a happy one, it was simply one devoid of argument.

****

Red Hood had not expected to run into the cloaked girl so soon after getting the information on Amanda from Bats. But lo and behold there was a soft grunt from above and the next thing he knew he was getting a double arm full of cloaked girl that had fallen from two stories up.

“WHOA, What the hell!?” he demanded with a stagger.

He got a groan as an answer first and then the girl tried to get out of his arms “sorry, won’t happen again.”

Red Hood wrapped an arm around her waist before she could go anywhere and held her close to him “Oh no, I don’t think so. I’m getting answers this time.”

A pair of black eyes turned to look at him with mild annoyance “please not right now, I’m kind of shot and already on my way to a fire.”

“Someone actually shot you?” Red Hood asked, something like amusement coloring his voice.

“Yes, now let go,” she ordered and tried to pull his arm off of her and utterly failed.

“What happened to the skeleton hand?” Red Hood asked as he searched his pockets for his phone.

“Doesn’t matter,” she grunted with effort as she continued to attempt to pry his arm off.

Red Hood let out a snort “you pulled me up off the edge of a bridge, how can you not pull my arm off?”

“I got shot!” she repeated heatedly and slapped his arm “now let go please! I have places to be!”

“How about no?” Red Hood said and began dragging her with him as he headed for his bike and texted Nightwing about the situation.

“Don’t you dare try taking me with you,” the girl hissed and he paused in his journey towards the bike.

“Or what?” you stab me? There’s a suspicious lack of scythe right now so I think I’m safe.”

The heated glare she sent him made him smirk under the helmet, her next words did not however “you will let me go this instant or I will break every bone in your body over and over again. I have places to go and people to save. Just like when I saved you. If you want to talk, fine. Find me another time, but not now. Now let. Go.”

Red Hood leaned in closer to her “and what makes you think you’re in any position to threaten me or negotiate?” he asked coolly. He never saw the elbow ramming back into the helmet hard enough to make him dizzy until it was to late and she was pulling his fingers back hard enough to make him release her and then she was gone again. The vigilante let out a loud curse that bounced off of the empty ally walls.  
-  
Red Hood and Nightwing for once cursed that someone hadn’t bled on him. It would have been an easy way to get a DNA sample but NOOOO, the person who had gotten shot just happened not to bleed on him.


	8. Anna may be a little cocky

Bruce had a pleasant smile on his face as the hotel door opened a crack and a pair of softly glowing green eyes peered out at him. Their owner smiled softly and quickly opened the door the rest of the way "Wayne," she greeted curiously and leaned against the doorframe "to what do I owe the surprise?"

"I was hoping we could talk more about your work, I apologize for not calling ahead." she waved away his apologies and stepped aside to let him into the large hotel room.

"It's fine Wayne," she hummed and closed the door behind him before heading towards the kitchen area "Water? tea, coffee, juice?" she added the last item with a smirk.

Bruce let out a small smirk back at her "Water is fine Anna, and you do know you can call me Bruce?"

The Epidemiologist raised an eyebrow at him as she pulled her glasses out of a pocket and plopped them onto her face before grabbing the cups "well where's the fun in that Wayne?" 

“So how is Gotham treating you?” he asked as he looked around the large hotel room. Bruce took note of the armored black boots sitting in front of one of the beds.

Anna smiled as she returned with the cups and positioned for him to sit at the small table “It’s been wonderful Wayne. Between the countless lectures, warning to be careful, and the one time someone tried to mug me, I’ve loved it. Gothic architecture and stormy nights have always been my favorite.”

Bruce smiled as he sat across from her “well we certainly have plenty of that,” his face crinkled in worry “the mugger didn’t take anything did they?”

Anna shook her head as she took a sip of her water “only pepper spray to the face and a foot to the crotch, Wayne. I’m not helpless.”

“I never intended to say you were?” Bruce raised a hand in defense “However, witch what you mentioned in passing at the fundraiser event you could end up dealing with a lot more than just some mugger-”

There was a small snort from Anna “Little late for any to stop me.” Bruce's cup stops halfway to his lips as he stared at Anna.

“You’ve made it?” he asked slowly.

Anna rose from her seat and went towards the bed that didn’t the boots in front of it and picked up a folder from the bedside table “I’ve always seen you as a good man Mr. Wayne,” she began as she returned to the table and carefully set the folder down in front of her own chair, fingers lingering on the cover “you help the poor, you provide jobs, you work for peace. If I’m being honest I actually look up to you, in comparison, I am a coward.” she sat down across from and met his eyes “which is why I’m going to ask you to help me.”

Bruce held her gave for a moment and then dropped it to the folder. This could change the entire ballgame against scarecrow and people like him and despite feeling as if he already knew the answer he asked anyways “with what exactly?”

The folder was slid towards him “Screwing over the biggest bads your city has to offer.”

Bruce picked up the folder and opened it, eyes scanning over the information and notes all over the papers inside. The entire time his expression stayed neutral. “Anna… do you realize what you’re doing?”

She shifted ever so slightly in her seat as she crossed her legs “I am aware of the target I am painting on my back, and if you don’t mind me saying, I’d like to make it even bigger.” Bruce looked up at her and she continued “I fully intend to do the exact same thing but worse to this city's resident clown.”

Bruce stiffened ever so slightly as he set the file down “I would try to dissuade you from this but I know just how much this could shake up Gotham's underground if you continue doing things like this. So if you’re going to do this you’ll need some kind of protection, let me call some friends of mine and we can move you to a safe-” he was interrupted with a polite,

“Thank you but no thank you, Wayne.”

Bruce stared “Anna-”

_“No thank you, Mr. Wayne.”_ she repeated more firmly “all you need to do for me is get the vaccine out there so that the general populace is safe from any more public attacks.” she calmly drank her water as Bruce internally screamed. What was it with scientist and not looking after their own safety so that they could do more.

“Do you not care for your only safety?” Bruce finally grit out “What about Amanda? The villains here are ruthless Anna!”

Anna let out a soft hum “so were the ones in Russia,” she commented with another drink of water “and Australia. The one time someone went after Amanda we handled it without anyone going to the hospital.”

“She’s been kidnapped before while she was with you?” Bruce demanded.

“It’s not like I haven’t been kidnapped once or twice either Wayne,” she sighed with a dismissive wave of her hand “we get it handled every time.” the look Bruce gave her was one even his boys rarely received, and only when they had done something so outrageously stupid, that just screamed _**WHY. WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS**_. But in an only half angry tone. 

Anna smiled “However,” she relented “If you’re so worried, you and your boys can swing by at any time and keep an eye on us. I’m sure at least one of them would get along with Amanda.”

Bruce was hardly reassured by this. He wanted to press the issue of Annas safety and insist she stay at W.E. or at bare minimum in the manner, but instead, he took a deep breath and asked: “Speaking of Amanda, where is she?”

“Gym,” Anna muttered “probably beating some poor punching bag into pieces, when that girl wants to she can throw a wicked punch. She’ll be there till they close or until she can hardly move her arms, whichever comes first.”

“And she’s going to walk back like that?” Bruce questioned in concern.

Anna gave him a small smile “nice to know you care Wayne. No, she’ll call me when she’s done and I’ll take a cab to go get her.”

“I could have Alfred pick her up,” Bruce offered suddenly and Anna raised an eyebrow.

There were a few moments of suspicious silence before she said: “The horse you beat may be dead.”

“Excuse me?” Bruce asked.

“It’s a password we use to identify new driver's,” Anna explained “there’s a return that goes along with it but since it’s Amanda it’s not really necessary.”

“If you’ll excuse my prying, what’s the returning phrase?” Bruce asked legitimately curious.

Anna chuckled slightly “it’s ‘Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have answers’.” she told him as she leaned back in her chair “Now I heard one of your boys wanted to fight her? This may be his only chance to do so unless he tries waking her up from a nap.”

Bruce paused “you’re ok with him fighting her?”

Anna smirked “oh yes, you may want to warn him to be careful though. Amanda kicks like a mule.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, just about any advice on writing is always welcome. I really want to be able to make something people can enjoy as well as tell the story I want to so If anyone has any input on how I can do so, I'd love to hear it.


	9. The begining of a special kind of bonding

When Damian stepped out of the car he frowned at the sight of the rundown and nondescript gym before him. He turned to Alfred “the suspect is here?” he asked skeptically.

“Unless Master Bruce was mistaken and gave us the address to a completely different gym than the one his prime suspect for that masked and cloaked girl you boys keep running into, yes. I think this is the place,” Alfred stated levelly “would you like me to accompany you into the establishment?”

“I can handle myself Pennyworth,” Damian assured him as he picked up his bag “Please stay nearby, however.”

“That was always the intention Master Damian,” Alfred hummed as the youngest of the Wayne boys closed the car door and walked up the steps to the gym.

Despite the owners various and repeated attempts, the building had a stench of sweat just barely under overwhelming. His scowl came in full force as Damian paid the measly fee to enter the gym and then proceed into the back areas following the sound of someone hitting a heavy sandbag. Damian watched Amanda from the doorway of the room for several minutes, begrudgingly admitting to himself that she had an incredibly steady stance and the power of her swings never decreased for even a moment. The sweats and black hoodie she wore made her a little harder to recognize but with its hood down he spotted the blond hair pulled back into a loose and wild ponytail almost instantly. 

When he moved further into the room she sent him a quick glance before returning to pounding the punching bag. Damian walked up next to her and dropped his bag next to hers “Fight me,” he demanded.

Amanda shot him a confused look. She was wearing her glasses despite being in a relatively dark room and covered in sweat that made them slip down her nose somewhat. “What?” he also noted the white bat symbol of the hoodie and fought the urge to smirk in amusement at it.

“Fight me,” Damian repeated and shifted his feet so that he was ready to fight at a moments notice. Not that he wasn’t already.

“No,” Amanda told him, looking a bit flustered at his presence and turned back to the bag.

“Why?” Damian glared heatedly at her.

Amanda glanced at him “Well one, because I’ve been here for the past six and a half hours and don’t feel like going toe to toe with someone who's still fresh,” she snapped at him. Damian noted the fact that she was far less shy or nervous than she had been at the fundraiser event, she just appeared cautious and annoyed at his presence.

He raised an eyebrow “if I only use one arm will you fight me?” he asked.

“What? No!” Amanda hissed at him “Can- Look would you please just leave me to punch out my feelings at peace?”

Damian actually took a step closer to her instead “and why are you punching your feelings out?”

Her face hardened and she gritted out “None of your business.” during the entire exchange her hits hadn’t varied at all.

“And?” Damian asked, “It might end up being my business and I’m always getting told to share my own problems with others, so it must do something.”

“You wouldn't even understand.”

“Wouldn’t that make me a better person to vent to?” Damian questioned as he crossed his arms “If I wouldn’t understand then I also wouldn’t be able to share the information.”

There was silence other than the rhythm of Amanda's strikes connecting and a few minutes later she said slowly “There was a fire.” Damian tilted his head to the side and waited for her to continue “And I was so close to saving a little girl… I-She wasn’t-she wasn’t supposed to die. It was too early, she had so much more life left and yet… I-I couldn’t reach her. I could reach everyone else but not her.” the punches stopped and Damian watched as Amanda's face crumpled into an expression of grief and utter sadness “and I was so close… just-just a second more and I could have saved her.” he recognized the word choice of 'she wasn't supposed to die'. it was similar to 'it's not your time to die' they had been given once or twice before when they tried to question why the cloaked person was helping them.

Damian was silent as she caught the punching bag and gazed at the floor. He let the silence drag on as Amanda slowly composed herself and then asked: “how long ago was this?”

Amanda didn’t answer for a moment “you’re not going to believe me.”

“Does it matter?” Damian asked shortly “The only reason I’m asking is so that you can get over yourself and fight me.”

He received an angry glare for that and Amanda opened her mouth as if to say something before giving a defeated sigh and letting their shoulders slump “no. no, it doesn’t matter if you believe me, but I also don’t need to tell you anything. Nor do I have to fight you.”

Damian moved in front of her as she moved towards her bag “but you’re going to fight me.”

She frowned at him and tried to step around him only to get blocked once more “please leave me alone.”

“Make me.”

She shot him an annoyed look and then tried to move around him. Damian caught her feint just in time and moved right back into her way. The heated glare that got him made him smirk. She tried going around him three more times and was blocked at every turn. Damian raised an eyebrow as she turned away from him and started to leave.

“Giving uUp-!” Amanda had suddenly turned back and made to dive to his right before suddenly switching direction as she dropped to the floor and seamlessly twisted past him to end up just in front of her bag. Not going to give up just because she got past him, Damian grabbed the back of her hoodie and pulled her back towards him.

“You don’t get to leave without fighting me,” Damian promised as he threw the first punch.

What followed in the next ten minutes was an intense game of cat and mouse with Amanda just trying to get back to her bag and escape. But soon after something seemed to change and she actually started fighting back somewhat. Damian ended up with a split lip from where she had nailed him in the face but that was hardly anything compared to the dark patches already showing up on her own face. As they somehow ended up in the middle of the room Damian was smirking in victory as a vicious kick connected. He should probably feel guilty over beating her up like this but if she couldn’t handle a few bruises then there was no way she was who they thought she was.

He completely missed the signs until it was too late and two fists had nailed him in the face, one after another, hands wrapped into his hair as they pulled him into a waiting knee and when he tried to lash out his arm was caught and used to pull him off balance and into another waiting fist. He was allowed to reel back, holding his now bleeding nose as he assessed the situation. Amanda was watching him with a cold expression of her own. The tinted glasses had long since been destroyed by Damian's fists and she spat out a mouthful of blood before readying her fists again.

“You wanted a fight pretty boy,” she grunted.

Damian grinned in response and threw himself back into the fight. Damian certainly recognized the footwork from the night the assassins had come after him and felt himself grinning wider and wider. And then suddenly Amanda had his leg and they were both dropping. He realized just what she was going to do the same time it apparently dawned on her and the world slowed down. He watched her expression do from cold and annoyed to horrified and scared as her body twisted to try and stop it, and then they both hit the floor and everything sped up again. Because of the way she had twisted, Amanda ended up hitting the concrete floor face first with a small cracking noise.

Damian was almost glad it was her nose instead of his leg that had gotten broken. A broken leg would mean he wouldn't be able to run around as Robin for a while. Amanda rolled off of him as her hands went to try and stop the bleeding as she let out a loud hiss of pain. Damian propped himself up and leaned towards her “Stop touching it,” he ordered as he pried her hands away “now hold still.” he could tell she fought the urge to flinch back in pain as he reset her nose but she listened to his instructions to stay there as he fetched the towel from his bag to use to stop the blood flow.

As she held the towel to her face Damian offered a hand up which she took after giving him a critical look. He pulled her up and grabbed both of their bags before leading the way to the doors “Alfred is waiting outside to take us to your hotel,” he told her as she followed him and she gave a tiny nod.

When Alfred saw them his eyes widened in surprise “Master Damian what happened?” he demanded but he quickly opened the door to the car.

“Progress,” Damian said with a smirk as Amanda slid into the car “I believe our next destination is the hotel Pennyworth?”


End file.
